


According to Plan (Or Close Enough to It)

by cat_77



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Gen, Set Post-Series 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-19
Updated: 2014-12-19
Packaged: 2018-03-02 03:37:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2798129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cat_77/pseuds/cat_77
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Preparation was key.  Though occasionally spontaneity was not a bad thing.  It was a combination of these two traits that created something unique.</p>
            </blockquote>





	According to Plan (Or Close Enough to It)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheArgentWolf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheArgentWolf/gifts).



> Written for Yuletide for butterflyfairy, who requested Alison and Kira interacting, possibly doing something fun together or teaching each other something new. Hopefully you like the result!
> 
> * * *

Preparation was key. She had learned this at an early age and found it held true in nearly every situation life could throw at her. Whether it be a stage debut or a Sunday dinner, preparation was the difference between success and failure. Quite frankly, she preferred the success portion of the equation.

So, when Alison Hendrix made an offer to take Kira Manning for a day of normal, non-secluded, winter activities, she did so with the preparation of three days' worth of forethought as well as nearly an hour consultation with all interested parties. The locations in question were well-populated and in close proximity to stations of both security and local authority. The locations also included emergency exits that she knew like the back of her well-manicured hand. The children were quizzed, the adults interrogated, and everyone had everything they needed both mentally and physically to appreciate a pleasant afternoon.

"Mrs. S wants you to know she may have provided some backup," Felix warned when he dropped Kira off at her doorstep. There were three unknown cars on the street, two rather broken down and one that was this year's model. She had the feeling that Mrs. S was not the only one watching. No one had made a move though, everyone was watching everyone, and all three had let Felix swing Kira in the air to land surefooted on her doorstep, so she assumed they were on her side, for now. Should they change allegiances, well, she was prepared for that as well.

"Pictures," she snapped her fingers. It was only prudent. She should know who may be an ally if needed should the Dyad Institute send some of their own tails.

Felix provided them as though he expected no less and she once again silently thanked Siobhan for her prudence. She laid them out on the small table in the hallway and called her children over to explain that, should they get lost or should they get separated, those in the photographs may be of assistance. Oscar and Gemma nodded, and Kira smiled, "That's Uncle Ryan, he's nice!" and she accepted that as valid.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Felix asked. He didn't run his hand through his hair, but it was well-gelled and she could understand the lack of wanting to muss it up, even though his hands twitched slightly in nervousness. "Dyad's been quiet, but that's no promise..."

"We are more than ready," she insisted. "Sarah deserves a break and Kira deserves to have some fun like a normal little girl for a change." 

From the same table, she picked up two items per child, neatly color-coded so that there would be no arguments: green for Oscar, purple for Gemma, and pink for Kira. She handed them each their set, watched her two children check them both and pocket them properly, and waited for Kira to do the same.

"What are these?" Kira asked instead, turning them slightly in her mittened hands.

"Spray and screamers," Oscar explained. "Aim for their eyes, but not yours. If your screamer doesn't work, try shouting that the person is a stranger, or a child molester. That usually gets help faster." He was a good boy and had clearly listened well during their last review.

Kira nodded sagely but Felix rolled his eyes. "Pepper spray and personal alarms? How is that normal?" he sighed. He notably did not try to take the items nor Kira away though.

"Normal is not having to worry about an evil institute trying to steal you from your loved ones," Alison defended herself. "These will help in that matter. If you are against them, well then, I guess you won't like your stocking stuffer this year," she huffed, but it earned her a grin. She had a feeling the protest was simply for the necessity of such things, the world they lived in being what it was, and not that she had thought to provide them to the children. The curve of his lips let her know he wasn't actually upset, at least not at her, and that he was not about to try to remove the items nor talk her out of her gifts.

"Why is it called a 'screamer' Auntie Alison?" Kira asked, turning the small box around to look at it from all angles.

Gemma smiled and reached for it. "You're going to love this!"

"And that's my queue to leave," Felix said, already backing towards the door. He blew air kisses, enough for everyone including Donnie who was just coming down the stairs, and added, "Kiss-kiss little monkey, be good for your Auntie," and closed the door behind him.

After a quick last minute review of safety protocols, a brief instruction on how to use her new toys, and a very minor wardrobe change, they were on their way. Alison hated that a "normal" day included the need to slightly disguise the child, but safety came first and little things like a newly knitted hat to hide her curls and gloves instead of mittens to allow her to manipulate her new acquisitions were simply a prudent choice. Kira could decide to keep the items or return them at the end of the day. For now though, she coordinated with the rest of the family, colors chosen to match the jacket Alison already knew she owned.

They stopped at the mall first, the community center with its arts and crafts event always busy this time of day and she had most of the same supplies at home should it come to it. She didn't have a kiln yet, but had left some price guides in prominent locations about the house as a strong hint to Donnie for this year's preferred gift.

An hour and a half of shopping, and she learned that young Kira was not accustomed to having the funds to purchase what she wished for her wayward family members. She would look at things, agree so-and-so would like it, and move on. Alison had a suspicion it was more than her young age playing a role. Siobhan's residence was well appointed, she had seen that for herself, but there was a lot of things used to create other things as well as the finished product versus tchotchkes and the like. An easel with paint and a table full of modeling clay had been on display during her last visits. Clothing was comprised of a few decent pieces, sturdy and packable, easy to grab without forgetting a favorite.

"We usually make presents for each other," Kira confirmed with a shrug when asked. She had beamed when Gemma told her that the gloves and hat were made by Alison herself, which gave Alison an idea for a gift she was fairly certain Sarah would not object to.

They hit a store full of educational toys next and she was proud of her family for figuring out her plan with minimal actual explanation. Gemma pointed Kira in the direction of the science toys that tended to have a lot of flash, while Donnie and Oscar dove in towards the ones with a bit more bang. She made a mental note of which ones her own children were showing a preference to, knowing Donnie was doing the same, and slipped off towards a different section entirely.

Kira was still too young to hold knitting needles in a sturdy enough grip to make anything beyond a misshapen trivet - she knew this from overestimating her own children several years back. However, there was the "machine" way of wrapping yarn around pegs to create simple hats and scarves. As a bonus, it was collapsable and easily carried and nearly any small town Sarah may need to hide out in should have a store that sold yarn. She chose the set with both the circle and the rectangle versions and then a few brightly colored skeins she thought Kira may like, paid for them, and tucked them into the larger bag from an earlier store to hide them away for now.

Next up was skating at the small indoor pond. They could not come to this mall without doing so at this time of the year, it simply wasn't done. Gemma, of course, had skills that far exceeded most of the people slowly circling in monotonous droves, but apparently Kira had yet to have the pleasure of ever learning. Alison herself had taught Gemma from when she was barely able to stand, and took it upon herself to bring Kira up to speed. The child was a natural. A few trip ups, yes, but soon enough she was wobbling her way with the others, a bright smile and rosy cheeks upon her face.

When it was clear she was tiring, around the second time Oscar caught her before she could hit the ice, Alison called time on the activity. Gemma pouted, but that pout was wiped away soon enough with the promise of Patrick's Cafe. Giant mugs of hot chocolate with snowmen marshmallows and snowflake cookies later, and all three children were smiles once more.

It was when they went to wash up after the hot chocolate - one did not shop with grubby hands and lips - that she noticed it. There were people, men and women both, circling closer. They could have also simply needed to use the restrooms, but something about the way they kept glancing at each other and kept tapping their right ears as if wearing an earpiece told her that was not the reason for their use of the location. 

A small hallway away from the rest of the mall with doors solely for gendered and family restrooms and storage for cleaning supplies was the perfect place for whoever it was to make their move. It was also the perfect place for her to make her own should they get too close. Unlike the children, she was packing far more than pepper spray. Her fingers closed around the hard plastic handle of the tazer just as a woman had the gall to say, "Kira Manning? Come with me."

Kira, bless her heart, simply made a face and replied, "Why?"

"Your mother needs you to be safe," the woman tried.

Kira made another face and pulled out her pepper spray. "That's not the safety word," she said right before she pressed the trigger.

She didn't quite hit the woman's eyes what with being a tad bit too short, but the woman flinched anyway. Gemma hit her personal alarm, which echoed deafeningly off the tiled walls, and then grabbed Kira's hand to bring her towards the door, her own pepper spray in hand. With the children's backs turned, Alison took the opportunity to use the tazer on the woman, right on the back of her neck as she had been shown that was the most effective, and soon the room was filled with the smell of burnt hair as well as the sound of the still screaming alarm.

Donnie was waiting for them just outside the door, a tazer of his own in hand. She had a moment of satisfaction as, just that morning, he had insisted such a thing would not be necessary and that, if it was, that perhaps they should not take the children out in public. Alison had argued back that Kira could have been their own, was their own in a way via messed up clone genetics, and that wouldn't he want their children to have every opportunity open to them? He had agreed and requested a chance to go through what he now knew to be a sizable personal safety arsenal to choose something nonlethal to carry when the inevitable occurred. 

Three men were closing in from the doorway that led back to the mall, and a fourth from a door marked for the employees only to have access to. The fourth man matched the pictures from earlier though, and Kira greeted him by name. He went through some song and dance of identification that was oddly appropriate for a child her age, then flashed an picture of him with Siobhan and said, "This way please, Mrs. Hendrix. We can get you to your minivan safely."

They followed him through the tunnel like structure that led to the backend of multiple stores, the man keeping up a dialogue the entire time of how few shoppers get to see the inner workings of a mall so that this was a special tour just for them. She appreciated the effort as Gemma and Oscar listened attentively and showed no outward signs of fear, only interest in being somewhere new and potentially exciting. Another man, also from the photographs, followed with his hand in his pocket, the shape of something determinedly not a tazer outlined against the fabric and pointed solely in the direction of whatever lay behind them.

The excitement was sadly lacking as far as the children were concerned, but Alison herself appreciated the lack of follow up from what she was certain were Dyad thugs. They arrived at the van safe and sound and she thanked the man for his efforts. He assured her that they would take care of any stragglers and that her home would have been swept for any disturbances before her arrival.

Unfortunately, that did mean cutting the community center portion of the day's events short. Normally she would be upset at such a change in schedule but, oddly enough, she was quite fine with it given that there was already quite the disturbance to her day. 

Instead, she found herself surrounded by her children and her craft supplies, various cards of creation ideas pulled from their files and laid out to be used as templates for afternoon projects. Donnie poured her a glass of egg nog and kissed her on the temple as he left to see to a light late lunch - sugar was a treat, but not enough to subsist upon. With him puttering away in the kitchen, she looked to her charges and asked, "What would you like to make?"

Her own children began to page through the chosen cards, but Kira held her pointer finger to her mouth for a moment in contemplation before she announced, "Angels. I want to make angels for everyone."

Alison had a brief flashback to the last angel she had made, and how its demise signaled the demise of a woman she once called friend. However, Kira did not reach for the yarn, but for paper and pencils, ribbon and scissors, and appeared to have a very definite idea in mind as she began to trace her own tiny little hand in a semi-lumpy outline. 

"For the wings," she confided. She seemed less certain as to how she was going to make the body portion, or even the head, but Gemma suggested using the pre-made doilies and Oscar suggested the small styrofoam pieces and the three children seemed to sort it out amongst themselves. Alison looked on proudly. It was not a pattern she knew of or owned, nor was it exactly the neatest of processes, but there was laughter and giggling and the possible misappropriation of glitter and the need for a thorough vacuuming job once completed.

Kira worked steadily, long after food was consumed and long after Gemma and Oscar moved on to other projects. Alison had appropriated the idea for her own and created a small angel family, the wings traced from each of her own family members' hands, yarn and paint added to further identify each subject. She placed the finishing touches on the one that represented Donnie and turned to check on her charge. 

In a neat line, laid out to dry, were a total of six angels. One was slightly larger with stick-straight hair cut from construction paper and an "S" emblazoned upon the doily. One was adorned in black with hair Felix would be proud of. The other four were nearly identical in shape and size, save for the brown yarn that was twisted into knots for one, and mixed with yellow for another. Alison smiled down at the red nearly precisely the shade of Cosima's favorite sweater, and the pink that she herself had worn that day and admitted, "They are beautiful."

Kira pursed her lips, exhaustion clearly taking its toll on her young body, but she was also just as clearly determined to finish. Clearly her mother's genes were strong, as was her stubbornness. "Auntie Alison, should I make one for Auntie Rachel? She says she's my aunt too, but I don't really know her and she was kinda mean but I think she's just lonely. Do you think she'd like an angel too?"

Alison thought about the stories she had heard about the woman, the threats she made and the way she treated Sarah and even Cosima. She also thought of how carefully cultivated everything in that woman's life had been from such an early age, how it had molded and shaped her into the woman she was now, the woman Alison herself could have been if the same had happened to her. She looked to her usually carefully organized craft room, the layers of scraps and glitter that littered the table and floor, the way it looked used and lived in and comfortable instead of sterile and blank. "I think that, if you want to make her one, I'll make very certain that it gets mailed to her for you," she said in reply.

And so a very tired Kira Manning was putting the finishing touches on one more angel when Alison Hendrix's doorbell rang some time later, admitting a trio that was mismatched and shaken and just as much of a family as her very own.

Sarah helped Kira gather her winter things while Felix promised her creations still had to dry but he would pick them up himself as soon as Alison approved. Siobhan simply looked to Alison, all-knowing in the way she had previously thought only her own mother could be. "I hear you had a little adventure during your outing today," was all she said.

Alison had not gotten to where she was in life by being intimidated easily, though it was currently a near thing and she needed to admit that to herself. It was the maternal figure aspect, she was certain of it. She simply raised her own eyebrow to match the one raised at her and replied, "Kira learned to ice skate. If you'd like, I may still have one of Gemma's old pairs of skates that should fit her. I can look for them tonight and have them ready for you when Felix comes to pick up her art projects."

Siobhan smiled as though proud of the lack of outward response, though Felix muttered, "What am I, a mule now?"

"You've been called, and have been, worse in your lifetime," Siobhan chided, to which her surrogate son simply shrugged and nodded.

With Kira all packed up and ready to go, Alison turned to face her troublemaker of a clone, the single-handed cause of a great deal of upheaval in her life. "Thank you," Sarah said, with enough emotion to denote a thousand meanings of more.

As Kira ran up to hug her goodbye, Alison found the only words that would come were an echo of the same. It was not a perfect response, nor had it been a day gone perfectly to plan. It was close enough though, and she found that was all that mattered.


End file.
